Stains and Stones
by Wolfish Oro
Summary: Of course that stain isn't mocking you Kaoru. Seriously, it isn't!


SCENE: Kenshin, feeling under-the-weather, is sent back to bed by Kaoru, despite his many protests.Sano is freeloading as usual, and Yahiko is off flirting with Tsubame...Ahem! I mean, working at Akabeko. It doesn't take long for Kaoru to figure out just how hard Kenshin's chores are...

"Okay. It can't really be THIS hard to get out a stain," Kaoru growled to herself. There was one gi left, and she'd already finished the rest of the wash, but this one was mocking her. 'Can laundry mock people?' Kaoru wondered. 'It must be karma. Payback for sending Misao the glittery make-up Megumi said she'd love...' She stared down at the obstinate gi, and found herself starting to yell for Kenshin...

Then she heard Kenshin moan as he rushed outside to toss his metaphorical cookies.

'Hn. No use calling Kenshin now,' she mused. Kaoru watched with more than a little sympathy as Kenshin retched again before setting the gi back in the tub and heading over to see if Kenshin was moderatly alright.

"Kenshin? If you're done, you need to get back inside until that crazy Fox gets here. You need to rest," Kaoru fretted. The sick red-head straightened and took a deep breath before treating Kaoru to his usual guarded smile.

"This one will be fine, Kaoru-dono, that he will. You shouldn't worry so much," Kenshin grinned weakly. Then he turned a little green and gave a faint "Oro!" before turning to become reacquainted with the bush he'd met earlier. Kaoru sighed and rubbed his back softly, the way her father had done for her when she'd gotten sick. Kenshin wiped his mouth on a rag before standing up again.

"Thank you, Kaoru-dono," Kenshin said. It stuck Kaoru then what she had done, and if she wasn't so worried over Kenshin, she'd've been mortified. As it was, she just started herding him back inside.

"Now then, there must be a way to deal with this," Kaoru announced to the laundry. "I will not let a little thing like a stain get the best of me..."'...'cause I'd never hear the end of it if I did,' she finished silently.

"Um. Let's see... I think Kenshin uses this when he's dealing with tough stains..." Kaoru picked up a bottle and looked at it. She couldn't quite tell what it was, but she'd deen Kenshin use it on the laundry. "He just pours this stuff in, and the laundry's done. Um." Kauru looked back at the gi.

"How much do I use...? It's a pretty big stain... Hey, how did Kenshin stain this thing? You'd think it wouldn't show up over the magenta..." Kaoru puzzled over the greenish stain for a minute before chalking it up to a grass stain.

"Well, it's pretty big, so I better pour the whole bottle in," Kaoru decided, uncorking the bottle and watching its contents splash into the tub of water.

ORO

"Well, it's pretty big, so I better pour the whole bottle in..." Kenshin paused as he heard this, he had been starting the fire for his bath when he first heard Kaoru muttering and decided to investigate. He watched in horror as she tipped the bottle upside down over the laundry tub, but before he could do anything, he heard Sano call out, "Yo! Kenshin! The fox-lady's here, she says to get your ass over here so she can fix you!"

"You stupid rooster-head, I didn't say that! You've horribly mangled my message to Ken-san!"

"Yeah, so?"

"Megumi-san, you needed to speak to this one?" Kenshin quickly interviened. 'It wouldn't do for the two of them to kill each other at the dojo... Kaoru-dono would kill me for letting them...'

"Ken-san!" Megumi brightened immediately, and one could see the fox ears twitching on top of her head. "Finally, someone with an IQ of more than eighty! Anyway, what are your symptoms, why aren't you resting, and where's Kaoru?"

"Ororo?" Kenshin asked weakly, trying to process the questions asked. "This one is sick to his stomach, and has a horrible headache, and this one was about to take a bath when he heard you and Sano argueing, and Kaoru-dono is doing laundry."

"Ohoho! Tanuki, doing laundry? How precious! But come on, I need to figure out what medicine to give you..."

ORO

Kaoru knew the exact moment that Megumi stepped inside the dojo; she could hear that crazy fox and the stupid freeloader from where she was attempting to wash out the stain. But when Kaoru pulled the shirt out of the tub, the stain looked, if anything, bigger than it was before. She thought it was just her, but the second time she pulled the shirt up, she knew, beyond any doubt, that the stain had indeed grown. In fact, the third time she pulled out the shirt, the stain covered half the gi.

It was, Kaoru thought, a very nice, grassy green color. 'A lot better than magenta,' Kaoru speculated. And since she had half-way ruined it...

Kaoru sighed and dunked the gi back into the water. 'I don't think Kenshin will be too mad at me...'

ORO

Kaoru looked up as she saw Kenshin head for the kitchen. He'd been really tired yesterday after he'd taken the medicine Megumi gave him, but he looked like he was better...

'Oh no. Ohnonononono. Nooooooooo! I can't believe Kenshin's already wearing that stupid gi... But it doesn't look like he's realized it's, uh, transformed...' Kaoru tried really, really hard not to look guilty, and she had a feeling that it wasn't working to well.

ORO

It was not untill the next day that Kenshin discovered that his gi had magically changed colors. Even then, he had to have someone point it out to him, since he was so conked out from Megumi's medicines-- but at least he wasn't throwing up now, even if he was still a little queasy.

Kaoru had given him a very odd smile that morning. It had started with worry for him. Then she saw what Kenshin was wearing and the smile turned into more of a sheepish grimace, which she tried but couldn't quite mask completely. Kenshin "oro"'d at this, but he had breakfast to cook... Yesterday, Yahiko had to cook and he was almost as bad at cooking as Kaoru.

Yahiko had just stumbled to the table, Sano already lounging there, when Kenshin walked in and Yahiko blinked.

"Izzat a new gi, Kenshin?" Yahiko managed to ask around a huge yawn.

"Oro? Of course not, Yahiko, this is just this one's old... magenta...ororo!"Kenshin looked down at his newly-turned-green gi and blinked sharply. Sano started laughing, and Yahiko looked just as confused as Kenshin. Kaoru looked...

'Sheepish, and guilty? Kaouru-dono? Why would she-' Kenshin suddenly, horribly remembered Kaoru dumping the entire bottle of his laundy mixture in the wash-water.

"Sorry," Kaoru said so softly that Kenshin almost didn't hear her.

"Damn, Missy, you mean you did this?" Sano started laughing all the harder as Kaoru blushed.

"But there was a stain and it wouldn't come out and nothing worked and-"

"At least this one won't be mistaken for a lady at the market anymore, that he won't," Kenshin mused aloud. 


End file.
